According to data available there are 248 manual scavengers in the city and the number could be more
Representational Image (Photo: PTI)
Chennai: A toll number to make complaints about manual scavenging should be created in the city, says M. Shivanna, chairman, National Commission for Safai Karamcharis, who arrived in Chennai on Tuesday. During his meeting with Chennai corporation commissioner Vikram Kapur, he says, “According to data available with the local body, there are 248 manual scavengers in the city and it is feared that the number could be more.” He earlier asked the local body to hold an enumeration of manual scavengers in the city and come up with correct data.
Other suggestions he made include rehabilitation to these workers, education and housing facilities for their families and each one to be given Rs 50,000 for an alternate job. “A relief fund of Rs10 lakh should be given to the families of workers who died after 1993. This includes the family of Sathyamurthy (35) of Ambedkar Nagarpet in Chidambaram, a sanitary worker in the municipality who died three days after he drowned in the waste water while he was cleaning an underground sewage pipeline,” Shivanna adds.
A state-level committee should be formed to monitor the issue, he says and warns, “Any employee who involves these workers in manual scavenging can be put in non-bailable judicial custody to between one to five years. The person will also be fined.”
( Source : dc correspondent )
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